Posts Tagged “jim jones”

I remember a time when going platinum in the first week was the minimum requirement for success. I was a kid then, but I can remember Best Buy building its empire by practically billing itself to my neighborhood as a cheap place to get CDs. It was nothin’ to go in there and come out with a handful.

Things have changed now though. Most people had their mind made up on what they thought of the Blueprint 3 before it was even officially released.

Last week, Kid CuDi sold about 105k in his first week and by the rest of the media’s standards, that’s a success. And it is. He’s a new artist who had to fight the uphill battle of getting the media to care about him. Mr. West’s co-sign didn’t hurt either of course.

Let’s look back at some of this year’s more anticipated releases to see how CuDi’s 105k stacks up.

Rick Ross - Deeper Than Rap158,000 in Week 1
With the 50 Cent beef, Officer Ricky had plenty of publicity to have a strong showing. It’s the lowest opening week numbers of his 3 albums though.

Jim Jones - Pray IV Reign42,818 in Week 1
Jimmy’s efforts to promote this thing on Twitter were admirable, but his major label debut has still yet to hit 100k in sales. Maybe some of that A-rab money should have gone to promo.

Asher Roth - Asleep in the Bread Aisle65,000 in Week 1
He was essentially the first of the “blog generation” to make the full transition to major label life, and considering the money that must have gone into making that album, I have a feeling the suits weren’t thrilled with these numbers.

Jay-Z - Blueprint 3476,000 in Week 1
HOV is out from Def Jam’s grip and had a marketing campaign you couldn’t escape. It’s clear that the days of platinum in a week are dwindling (duhh, Mark)…

If you’ve been following Jim Jones on Twitter, you’d see that every night, Capo tweets a little segment he calls “What’s Ghetto.” Now he’s giving you a chance to make your own “What’s Ghetto,” and the best one wins a prize.

Here’s what’s being called the newest single from Jim Jones’ upcoming album, Pray IV Reign. Nah Right is calling it “possibly” the first, but I swore the other day on MTV that they had the Ron Brownz joint “Pop Champagne” credited to Pray IV Reign.

My first impression of this is pretty decent too. It never hurts with me to have R Les on your track (and presumably producing you). Not being a die-hard Dipset stan, I think I can say with objectivity that Jim Jones has definitely been one of those rappers who you can chart their growth through their records; with very publicized records at that. He may not be Biggie or L, but tell me he’s not in that top 5 of most recognizable voices in hip-hop today.

There’s a Lil Wayne documentary currently wrapping up that is set to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The Carter, is filmmaker Adam Bhala Lough’s chronicle of a day in the life of Weezy. It’s being billed by the Sundance Festival’s PR department as “an in-depth look at the artist… proclaimed by many as the ‘greatest rapper alive.” The film will feature the usual one-on-one interviews and commentary by Dwayne’s closest friends.

Cool, I guess. Weezy’s fine by me, but he never struck me as the most interesting rapper to shoot a whole film on. I don’t like to offer idle criticism either, so I made a top 3 list of my own “must-see rapper docs.”

That’s right, Jim Jones, Juelz Santana and the Skull Gang are teaming up with Mike Epps to release A Tribute to Bad Santa. You could call this a sequel to A Dipset Christmas. The Christmas album will feature “15 Christmas bangers” (their words), along with four skits, starring the group and guests like Freekey Zekey. It’s dropping on Koch November 25, online and in stores.

Hit the jump for the track-listing and a preview of the wavy Christmas album with Mike Epps in the studio.

So here ya go. One of the weirder “collabos” you’ll see, Kid Cudi and Jim Jones. The pic above comes via Complex (same with the song), and kinda wraps up how I think a lot of people are feelin’ about it. So how many rappers are going to start singing now?